Yes, of course it's Critical...

I've been back home for around a fortnight now after nearly a week in Cape Town for the Investing in African Mining Indaba?- five days that seemed more like several weeks, but mostly in a good way. Before the memories fade and my notes get binned, I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts...

?

This year's Indaba commenced, for me at least, with the usual prologue of the?#MinisterialForum - a chance to hear the current perspectives and priorities (and, in a few cases, policy initiatives) of Ministers of Mining, Energy and Natural Resources from governments across the continent.?The event presents the occasional opportunity to engage in a discussion - and, in some instances, even debate - with the ministerial delegations, and I left feeling a little more optimistic, and certainly less frustrated, than last year. I sensed that many governments might now be a tad more open to partnerships and collaborations, not only between themselves but also with the private sector, to make the most of the potential opportunities they glimpse from the global prioritisation of so-called #CriticalMinerals . That said, there are still very different perspectives on those priorities when viewed from either the demand or the supply side - or, to put it more starkly, those with the money (and, often, the technology and skills) and those with the mineral resources.

I have spoken and written many times about the need for sectors and value chains to come together, to agree shared goals and collaborative actions, if we are to make meaningful progress on the big sustainability challenges. Often, however, as we witnessed with the global climate change agenda, and are seeing now in considerations of 'nature positivity', it's responsible corporate actors and forward-thinking investors with wide-screen vision and longer-term perspectives that point the way and set the pace. Governments so often lag and linger on legacy issues, while chasing near-term national interests and temporary wins instead of transformational opportunities. I am certainly not only talking of African governments here - I am also mindful of those closer to home. Politicians standing for election seem to almost inevitably suffer from a myopic lack of vision and an instinctive timidity when it comes to tackling the world's big social and environmental problems.

So I was pleased to hear many ministers at the Forum suggest that they accepted they would need to work more closely together to complement their different capacities and strive for mutual benefit, whilst acknowledging that private partners would undoubtedly be needed too. A deep suspicion of post-colonialism and 'western' hypocrisies still distorts this dialog and hinders the trust needed to build those partnerships, but there was also plenty of practical, clear-sighted realism in many of the contributions. And I put at least some of that down to the surge in attention being paid to Critical Minerals and a determination, in some quarters, not to squander this opportunity.

I was pleased also that the general recognition of the urgent need for more Critical Minerals was largely framed from the perspective of what we might also call #TransitionMetals - the materials and inputs needed to produce renewable energy systems, technologies and infrastructure to facilitate a decarbonised economy. There was far less talk of the metals needed for defence hardware (and advanced tech) than has seeped into conversations on criticality in other locations.

Talking of which?(and a point I have made before?- and did so again at a media briefing at the Indaba), I think there is still insufficient scrutiny of the assumptions and methodologies used to identify and prioritise what is truly critical. That is, it can be argued that those policy makers seeking to define criticality as reflective of (national) sourcing challenges and supply shocks, likely to challenge or disrupt a country's ability to produce the technologies and grow the sectors to underpin a transitional economy, are quite often blinkered in their terms of reference, horizons and time frames. If we look at some of the expert guidance that has informed the evolution of critical minerals regulations in some jurisdictions, we note how those experts often refer to the recent past to inform their view of the future (something most climate-focused folk realise is a major mistake), and they prioritise national or regional perspectives, when only globally co-ordinated solutions are likely to deliver impactful solutions. Both these tendencies are likely to exacerbate the challenges of delivering a demonstrably #JustTransition.

These tendencies also often lead to industry commentators and analysts to dismiss gold as largely irrelevant in this context, because it is not used in bulk in clean energy technologies and it is relatively accessible across the globe. These facts are, at face value, true enough; although more gold will be used due to electrification and in smarter cleaner vehicles, etc., the required volumes shouldn't pose a problem to the gold supply chain and wider market. But if the objective of expanding and accelerating the production of critical minerals is to drive decarbonisation, then gold mining has already proven to be critical in being the first mover to introduce renewables into developing economies and remote locations . Without the actions of gold mining companies in several countries across Africa, including South Africa (but also in Burkina Faso and the DRC, and elsewhere), the chances of a viable renewable energy sector of any material scale in those locations is much reduced. That is, without the actions taken by gold mining companies to reduce their carbon emissions, which have then sparked further change, many local economies would probably have lacked the resources, skillsets and the economic incentives to kickstart any transformation. In other words, a decarbonised economy needs not only the material inputs to build new energy systems, but also a means of delivery and implementation, and it needs economic actors - responsible, forward-thinking corporate entities - motivated to initiate structural change.

When I heard a number of gold mining CEOs comment on these issues, including in discussions on the main Indaba stage with my colleagues, I was heartened by their confidence in their companies' ability to continue to drive such change, even if in some locations they had to lead in relative isolation.

Elsewhere, both on stage and behind closed doors, the World Gold Council was engaged in conversations focused on how to define and drive progress in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (#ASGM), with an eye on potential collaborative efforts, including bringing governments to the table with large-scale miners, development-focused institutions and NGOs, to consider what enduring and scalable success might look like. Several conversations explored how partners might working towards solutions that promise to bring ASGM production into the mainstream market whilst improving social and environmental outcomes. Such solutions are often quite elusive and these discussions can be challenging, but the development of?an ongoing cross-industry dialogue, with an increased focus on shared goals, might at least be taken as yet another indication of a gold value chain that is far less siloed and fragmented - and is, perhaps, a little braver - than it once was.

One minor disappointment for me at this year's Indaba was the 'side-lining' of?many important discussions on key sustainability issues, albeit I think that was likely reflective of the good intentions of the event organisers in their efforts to dedicate substantial time and space to these issues. But the dedicated auditorium and specially curated content, being relatively far removed from the main stage(s) and exhibition space, created both a physical and also conceptual/intellectual distance separating the concerns and insights of sustainability professionals from the more traditional considerations of many of the mining CEOs, ministers and industry 'mainstream'. I strongly believe any such separation needs to be abandoned. The value, purpose and wider impacts of the mining industry (and, particularly, gold mining - given its ability to operate and catalyse change in 'frontier' locations) are intrinsically tied to its ability to demonstrate its awareness of ESG risks and its potential contributions to positive environmental and social outcomes. This needs to be centre stage and front of mind for the whole sector, and I very much hope this will be recognised in the shaping of next year's Mining Indaba agenda.